TRAINING for 2019 are currently full. if you have indicated interest THROUgh the website previously you will be getting an email asking to RSVP to a specific training. We will open registration for 2020 in October 2019.

“Thomas Jefferson told Lewis and Clark to go out there and identify everything. Well, it’s been two hundred years, and it’s high time we had an inventory. In a way, it is fitting that this should be such a grassroots sort of thing. Instead of a huge agency that could have put a few million into a Flora Project, but hasn’t and won’t, it is heartening to see that many dedicated people will get the job done.” 

Although we estimate there are 500 species of bees in Oregon, there has never been a concerted survey of the state’s bees. Without even a checklist of species, it is very difficult to know whether the health of Oregon bees is improving or declining. The Oregon Bee Atlas represents the first steps towards confronting the gulf in our knowledge about the bees of Oregon.

The success of the Oregon Bee Atlas, like Oregon Flora, rests on the shoulders of committed volunteers. The Oregon Bee Atlas' four year mission (2018-2021) is to train volunteers to explore Oregon Counties, to seek out new native bee records for the state, to boldly go where no amateur melittologist has gone before! These new specimen records will be added to newly digitized historic records from the Oregon State Arthropod Collection to build the first comprehensive account of the native bee fauna of Oregon. Volunteers are also assisting with new survey initiatives, notably the new Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas led by the Xerces Society.